Tara García Mathewson joined the Daily Herald in September 2010 to cover Carpentersville, East Dundee, West Dundee and Hampshire along with their respective townships and library districts.

She moved into covering the City of Elgin in January 2011 with a secondary focus on South Elgin and Gilberts. In December 2012, she switched beats once again, shifting into the Fox Valley education beat, primarily covering Elgin Area School District U-46, Carpentersville-based Community Unit 300, Huntley Area Consolidated School District 158 and Elgin Community College.

Before coming to the Daily Herald, Tara worked at the Kitsap Sun in Bremerton, Wash., for a three-month internship as a student at Northwestern University. Her story, “Making Arrangements for a World Market,” written in collaboration with Chris Henry, won first place in the 2010 Society of Professional Journalists Pacific Northwest Region business reporting category. Multimedia project “Remembering Pearl Harbor,” completed primarily in collaboration with Derek Sheppard, won third place in the same year's special report/enterprise category.